To the east can be seen Silver City. The mines in this vicinity produced over $12,000,000. None of them has attained any great depth.
The road next enters the Gold Hill district. The country in this vicinity is gashed and scarred by hundreds of cuts, shafts and tunnels dug by the early prospectors in their search for wealth. Every one of these marks represents a hope, and in many cases the hope was realized; the same spirit animates their successors and the search still goes on.
The principal mines in Gold Hill are the Ophir, Caledonia, Overman, Seg, Belcher, Yellow Jacket, Kentuck, Crown Point, Imperial and Bullion. The Yellow Jacket was the first mine located, taking its name from the fact that its locators were warmly opposed by a swarm of yellow jackets. This was in 1859. The yield of the Gold Hill mines and the dividends paid were enormous.
The Ophir Mining Co. in 1859 sent 45 tons of their croppings to San Francisco for reduction, the cost for transportation being 25 cents per pound, or $500 per ton. They paid $450 per ton for smelting, a total cost of $42,750, yet they made a profit of $128,250 on the transaction, the rock giving over $3,800 per ton.
High above the town of Gold Hill and clinging to the side of the mountain can be seen the flumes of the Virginia & Gold Hill Water Co., which supplies the camps of Virginia City, Gold Hill and Silver with the finest water in the world. The water is conducted 3 I miles through pipes and flumes from springs and snow-fed streams in the Sierras 1,500 feet above the city. The capacity of the flumes is 10,800,000 gallons per day. From Gold Hill the road runs through tunnels, twists and turns along the side of Mt. Davidson until it reaches Virginia City, the end of the line.
Virginia City was first settled in 1859. It obtained its name from an old prospector, James Finney, nicknamed "Old Virginny." Its elevation is 6,205 feet above sea level.
In 1861 the population of Virginia City was 3,284, of Gold Hill 1,294 and of Silver City 1,022; in 1878 it was 40,000.
The first international hotel was built in 1860. It was a single story building. The first day's receipts were $700. The present structure was built in 1877; it cost $210,000.
The honor of discovering the "Comstock Lode" belongs to the two brothers, Allen and Hosea Grosch. The majority of the miners on the Comstock in the first days of its activity lived in tents and dug-outs called "holes in the wall."
I never realized the vastness of our country, nor the wonderful opportunities which the West affords those in search of wealth, until I lived there six months. There are untold undeveloped resources, the like of which does not exist in the over-crowded East. May this little book, in a way, serve to introduce the West to the East.